Music representation.



D. J. DIGKSON.

MUSIC REPRESENTATION APPLICATION I'ILED NOV. 28, 1910.

3 SHEETS-SHEET l. I

Patented Feb. 18, 1913.

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D. J. DIOKSON.

MUSIC REPRESENTATION.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 28, 1910 1,053,366. Patented Feb. 18,1913.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

WzTae-Jugw Iii/11622702: M ilamfipapl m D. J. DIGK SON. MUSIC REPRESENTATION. APPLICATION FILED NOV. 28, 191 0.

' Patented Feb. 18,1913.

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STATES PATENT OFFIQE.

DAVID J. DIcKso or CINCINNATI, OHIO.

MUSIC REPRESENTATION.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 18, 1913.

Application filed Hove-Inher- 28, 1810. 4 Serial No. 594,561.

To all whom-it may concern:

Beit known that I, DAVID: J DIQKSON, a citizen of the United States, residing at Cincinnati, in the county of Hamilton and State of Ohio, have invented certain'new and usefulImprovements in Music Representation, of which-the follow-ingiis a specification My invention? relatesto novel usic representation for obviating the difiiculties experienced by persons not familiar with. the interpretation of music as .shownin connectionwith ordinarystaves, and to enable a.

in fact, any instrument in which a fingering board. is employed, and. irrespective 0t whether the fingeringboard be provided with strings forstring-instruments or with apeptures orkeys for wind-instruments, the.

fingeri-ngboard of such. instruments like the piano ororgan being more commonly desig.-. nated by the term key-board.

Myinventionis also applicable to therep resentation of vocal music by the. depiction of the notes upon: representations ct =the-keyboard, for instance, of the piano, from which.

the exact pitches-ortone values may-bepenceived without the. difiicult interpretation-1 necessary whenr shown inrt-he form of-music written upon. the. ordinary staves, and; my

invention provides readymeans for-reading music, for the cutting. or, printingof the per forated webs of rolls ofi'music for-the auto-. matic piano, or the like.

In my inventionthemusic is read directly from a representation of a fingering board,

uoon-Which =.the notesiof various pitchesand duratiorrvalues. are placed in. positionswhich:I correspond to the pitch-positions r of the notesuponcthe, fingering board .of the instrument,so thattthe finger positions indicated. by the 'notes in the representations .of 2 theifingering. board are struck tor acted:npon-.. 0m. theafingering board. ot-the 1 instrument, thereby renderingnunnecessary the Y compli-L cated' mental process ofie reading, music as. now ondinarily written, from, a. -syst-e1 n .,of 1 notes which has nothingrdirectly suggestive.-

ofthe fingering board of the instrument being played.

In the ordinary staff-system of depicting. music, it is necessary to indicate the keyin which the musioiswritten, by various keysignatures, usually indicated by sharps or flats in diflerent. numbers and positions by whichpthe pitch values of the notes in the various keys of music are denoted, it being necessary for the performer to constantly remember which of the notes have their pitch-values thus affected or to be constantly referringback to the beginning-of the staff to ascertain what key is required, whereas in my invention the performer places his fingers on the. finger-positions or strikes the keys indicated on the representations or, the fingering board or key-board, the respective notes being thus indicated without reterence to the particular key of music.

In my invention the durations of the notes may be shown onthe representations of the fingeringboard orkey-board and be in the forms now in general use, and other indicia, such as rests, trills, broken chords, various intonations, expressions and musical variations andterma'may also be indicated at the proper places on the fingering board or keyboard representations, andconvenient means provided for distinguishing the treble and bass. notes.

In my invention further, the readingof thenotesat extreme points above or below thestafi, which is very diflicultin the ordinary staff-system, is dispensed. with, the notes appearing on the representations of the fingering board or key-board in connection with the finger-positions or keys actuallyafiected on the fingering board or keyboard of the instrument.

. My-invention further provides a system- 'which greatly simplifies the teaching of music-to children, and also enables people, who have no knowledge of music, to readily and quickly learn to play musical instruments, and is also applicable for enabling'anyone jd-esiringzto play-an instrument to readily ascertain the fingerpositions or keys to be manipulated 'or struckby thedepictionsof the notes in connection with the finger-positions .or keys on the representations otzthe fingering .board .or key-board of the instru ment, the performer placing his fingers upon tl1e. fingeri-ng.-.board or key-board oflthe instrument,- in the note-positions clearly,

shown upon the representations of said board.

My invention further provides means whereby the treble and bass notes, 6. 9., the notes to be played for instance in a keyinstrument, such as the piano, respectively with the right hand and the left hand, are placed side by side and are distinguishingly represented to clearly indicate which notes are to be played simultaneously by the two hands.

I have illustrated my invention in connection with the representations of the keyboard of the piano, from which its application to other instruments may be seen, the representation in connection with the keyboard of a piano being for purposes of illustration and not to be construed as a limitationh In the drawings: Figure 1 represents a sheet of music, according to my invention, upon which appear representations of the key-board of a piano, upon the representations of the keys or digitals of which various notes are shown, and in connection with which various music-indicia appear inrelation to the notes affected thereby, the sheet being partly broken away. Figs. 2 and 3 represent sheets of music, according to my invention, upon which respectively the representations of the key-board of a piano are shown in successively superposed arrangement, Fig. 2 depicting'the first two measures of the well-known selection America, also known as My Country, tis of of Thee, and Fig. 3 depicting the third and fourth measures from the last in said selection, the sheets being partly broken away. Fig. 4 represents a sheet of music according to my invention, upon which is depicted a portion of a musical selection, namely the third and fourth measures of' America the representations of the keyboard being abbreviated and the octaves dlstinguishingly represented for locating the register of the representations upon the key-board of the instrument, the sheet being partly broken away. Fig. 5 is a perspective view, representing the sheets having the music thereon arranged according to my invention, bound in the form of a book, partly broken away. Fig. 6 is a perspective view showing a web of flexible material upon which the music is arranged according to my invention, capable of being rolled or unrolled, and means for lighting the reverse side of said flexible material and for rotating the roll.

1, 1 are representations or depictions of the usual key-board of a piano, of which 2 represent the white keys or digitals, and 3 the black keys or digitals. Notes are shown in visual manner in connection with the representations of the keys, being preferably depicted on the key representations, the

notes 4 for the white keys of the piano being shown on the whitekey representations, and the notes 5 for the black keys of the piano being'shown on the black-key representations.

For 'the purpose of distinguishing the notes in the drawings, the notes 4 are shown in black on the white-key representations, and the notes 5 are shown in white on the black-key representations, although in practice colors may be employed to clearly show the notes, for instance, by showing all the notes of one color or black, and showing the representations of the whitekeys, white, and the representations of the black keys in some light color, as for instance pink, upon which the notes will distinctly show in black, the idea being to clearly show the notes in connection with the representations of the keys. i I

The key-representations indicate the finger-positions of 'thefingers on the keyboard of the piano, the key-board being the fingering board of this instrument. When notes appear in connection with any of the key-representations, they indicate that corresponding keys on the piano are to be struck for playing the notes thus represented, the durations or time-values of the played notes being preferably indicated by the character of the notes depicted as in ordinary stafl notation. Ifv it is desired to apply my invention to other instruments, successive representations of the fingering board of the instrument desired are depicted, and notes are shown in'connection with the representations of the fingering board and in positions which correspond to the notes produced by the manipulations in the corresponding finger-positions on the instrument. v

The durationwalues of the notes depicted are preferably indicated in similar manner to the indications of duration-values now in general use. Thus 6 re resents a whole note or-semibreve, 7 a hal -note or minim, 8 a quarter-note or crotchet, 9 an eighth-note orquaver, 10 a sixteenthnote or semiquaver, and 11 a thirty-second note or demisemiquaver, and other duration-values may be correspondingly indicated. Rests, shown at 12, 13 and 14, may also be correspondingly represented. The duration-values of the notes and rests may also be shown by dots, as for instance the single dots 15 to indicate a prolongation of the note or rest for one-half its value, or the double dots, shown at 16 to indicate an additional prolongation of one-half of the initial prolonged value. Various musical indicias' may also be employed in connection with the representations of the fingering board, but it will be noted that all indicia indicating key or pitch may be dispensed with, the presence of sharps, flats'or naturals or the indications of the key in which the music is writtenbeing unnecessary, for the reason that the notes themselves, whether natural,- sharp, or fiat,

which are to be played, are shown in connection with the key-representations at the huger-positions of those notes, so that it is necessary for the performer only to locate upon the fingering board of the instrument the depicted locations for his fingers shown in the picture of the fingering board or keyboard of the instrument, thus rendering unnecessary the difficult'and confusing translation of staff representations of music. Other indicia, such as those for duration, as already explained, time and accent, conjunction or separation of tones, graces, and words and signs relating to pace, intensity, and style and for other purposes, may be employed. These are preferably placed adjacent to the notes used and may be arranged above or below the representations of the,

fingering board. Thus 21 represents a signature which may be placed at the beginning of the selection, or repeated from time of each measure may be indicated by an accent 22.

23 represents a slur, which is preferably written above the key-board representations.

25 represents a pause, indicating prolongation of the note ad lz'be't'um, and othersigns and directions, as for instance Da capo, shown at 26, and repeat-signs, shown at 27, and other signs may be employed, either upon the representations of the keys or above or below the key-board representations, as may be most convenient or desirable. Various words relating to pace, intensity,- and style may be employed, preferably above the representations of the key-board, as shown by the words Largo, at 28, Allegro,-. at 29, by the letters f, ff and fff, shown at 30, 31 and 32, and the letters 79,- pp, 397979, shown respectively at 33, 34 and 35, or the words Brillante, Con moto, shown respectively at 36, 37, or other indicia, may be employed as the exigencies of the case may require;

The representations of the fingering board may be upon sheets 4i, of paper or the like,

or in book-form, as shown at 43, or may be in the form of a web, as shown at 44, the sheets, whether'in the form of leaves or web, having thereon pluralities of representations of the fingering board 'or key-board in successive and preferably in superposed relation. .Thus in Fig. 2 I have depicted keys which will be struck at successive time-intervals in the playing of the first two measures of the selection America, notes being represented in connection with the keys, upon succeeding representations 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50 of the key-board of the instrument.

In Fig. 3 I have similarly shown the rep- 65 resentations of the key-board with depicto time as may be desired, and the first note which may be either loose as shown at 42,

tions of the notes on the keys struck by the fingers upon the key-board of the instrument, at the successive time-intervals inthe third and fourth measures from the last in the same selection, the representations of the key-board in this instance being shown at 5-1, 52, 53, 54, 55 and 56. In this latter example, in representation 52, the notes F in the first octave of the bass notes and D in the first octave of the treble notes are struck simultaneously by the fingers of the left hand, the said note F being a quarter note and the said noteD being an eighth note. the striking of which latter is followed in eighth time by the striking, by a finger of the left hand, of the lower note C in the first octave of the treble keys, being also an eighth note, the two eighth notes occupying the duration interval of the quarter note F mentioned. The said notes F and D are therefore struck as a chord, to indicate which they may be connected by a chord-sign 58, which extends laterally for connecting the representations of notes in lateral arrangement. To indicate that they are the first notes struck, they may be accompanied by the indication I, as shown at 59, the note C being accompanied by the indication 2 as shown at 60, to show the sequence of the playing of the notes. A similar chord-sign is employed between notes of the same time-interval struck silm-iltaneously by the finger of the right hand, namely the notes F and B flat, in the first octave of the treble keys, followed by the striking of the note A in the same octave, the notes B fiat and A being eight notes, together ofthe duration of the quarter note F.

A in Figs; 2 and 3-, the entire key-board oi the piano is depicted. In a great many selections, however, the range of pitch is en- 1 compassed' in but a portion of the key-board, for instance, inthree octaves embracing the first two octaves of the bass keys and the first octave of the treble keys. When representing selections of this character or of oth-encharacters embracing less than the entire key-board, I prefer to abbreviate the representations of the key-board, showing the range only of the key-board employed in playing the selection. Thus in Fig. 4, 61.

62, 63, 64, and 66 represent depictions of the key-board abbreviated in the manner stated, and the notes shown represent the third and fourth measures of the selection America, the respective representations of the key-board indicating the successive time-intervals in said two measures.

In order to indicate the treble keys and the bass keys respectively, so that the performer may know in which register of the instrument the notes represented are'to be played. I depict the treble and bass keys or finger-positions respectively by distinguish ing representations. This may be done by successively numbering the octaves on the treble'key representations by the letter T with the exponent successively of 1, 2, 3

and 4, or such of the same as may be employed, to denote the treble-register, as shown at 67, and the bass-key representations by the letter B with the exponents 1, 2, etc., dependent on the number of octaves of the bass keys employed in the select-ion, to denote the bass-register, as shown at 68. A further distinguishing character employed may be a vertical line drawn between the final letter B of the bass keys and the initial key C of the treble keys, as shown by the line 69. I also indicate the depictions of the notes respectively played with the left and right hands, in distinguishing manner, as by providing the notes to be played by the left hand with depending stems as shown at 70 and the notes to be played by the rig'ht hand with upwardly extending stems as shown at 71.

If desired, the fingering board representations may be depicted on a web of flexible material shown atv 44 arranged to be rolled upon rolls 77 78, and suitable mechanism may be employed for controlling the rolling or the unrolling of the web, for instance by an electric motor 79, the speed of which is controlled by a rheostat 80 for controlling the speed of movement of the web, and its direction of rotation by a reversing switch 81, for controlling the direction of movement of the web. 82 is a double pulley loose on the unrolling shaft 83 and 84 a pulley loose on the rolling shaft 85 connected by a belt. 86, a belt 87 connecting the pulley-82 with the motor-pulley 88. A clutch 89 between the pulley 82 and shaft 83, and a clutch 90 between the pulley 84 and shaft 3 are alternately broughtinto operative connection by a shifter 91 for connecting the Spect-ive pulleys with their shafts. This web may be of light-transmitting material, preferably translucent. as a paper suitably treated, and if desired means may be provided for lighting the reverse side of the unrolled portion of the web, for instance by an electric lamp 92 suitably disposed for lighting the unro-lled portion of the said web so that the representations of the fingering board with the notes and indicia thereon may be passed before the view of the per.- former against the lighted background.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A flexible sheet or sheets having a plu rality of depictions of the fingering-board of a musical instrument thereon, and notes of a musical composition divided into successive groups of notes respectively located in direct connection with said respective depictions of said fingering-board, the said depictions of said fingering-board with the said groups of notes respectively in direct connection therewith being in separated relations and in the sequential arrangement of said musical composition, and the said depictions of said fingeringboard comprising depictions of the treble keys and bass keys having a distinguishing mark between them. 7

2. A flexible sheet or sheets having a plurality of depictions of the fingering-board ofa musical instrument thereomand notes of a musical composition divided into successive groups of notes respectively located in direct connection with said respective depictions of said fingering-board, the said depictions of said fingering-board with the said groups of notes respectively in direct connection therewith being in separated relations and in the sequential arrangement of said musical composition, the said depictions of said fingering-board comprising depictions of the treble keys and bass keys having a distinguishing mark between them and arranged in octaves oppositely and consecutively numbered.

Initestimony whereof, I have signed my name hereto in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

DAVID J. DICKSON.

Witnesses:

THOMAS K. SCHMUCK, JOSEPHINE A. HAMELBATH. 

